A SWINDON-based company has been asked to help countries hit by the effects of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

Fugro Geos Ltd has had urgent requests from India, Thailand and Malaysia to help them predict further giant tidal waves, like the one which caused massive devastation on Boxing Day and has already claimed more than 100,000 lives.

There are worries that there could be an aftershock earthquake, which could trigger another tsunami.

Dr Richard Rayner, managing director, said: "We are responding to a number of inquiries from countries in the region, such as India, Thailand and Malaysia, to improve their present ocean observing systems so that they could actually observe a tsunami.

"None of the systems they have at the moment would be capable of doing that.

"We have been involved in ocean observing systems in a number of countries around the world.

"Our company can certainly help to put the instruments in to make it more possible to issue a warning.

"Whether people would get the warning in time depends on how far away from the earthquake site they are."

Dr Rayner said that although a tsunami can be predicted, an earthquake unfortunately cannot.

He said: "There is a tsunami warning system for the Pacific Ocean and I'm sure there will now be an equivalent system introduced in the Indian Ocean.

"Although you cannot predict an earthquake, by observing it you can say something about whether it would generate a tsunami.

"You could then detect the tsunami but at that stage there is very little time to warn people.

"A tsunami wave is moving at something like 500 miles an hour."

Dr Rayner said that though there are several companies around the world supplying observing systems, the Swindon company had been chosen because it had already supplied ocean observing systems to India, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

He said: "We have supplied other systems in the past and we are now being asked what we can supply to enhance those systems.

"We built the observing systems that are used for observing cyclones and wave height.

"Data about waves and winds are transmitted to shore by satellite."

The company employs nearly 100 people at its Groundwell Industrial Estate base.